office for adjudication from Alaska, and these cases bring up many new features peculiar to the situation in that Territory and the laws specially applicable thereto and involve a consideration of the history and policy of Alaskan legislation.

Besides controversies between private claimants, the field service of the office finds it necessary, in the performance of its duties, to institute proceedings on behalf of the Government against a considerable number of entries, and the same is true of the Forest Service in cases arising on lands subject to its supervision. Many of the Government contests involve extensive conspiracies for the acquisition of public lands, some of which, from the care necessary in thorough examination, are found to require more time than an equal number of ordinary cases.

The gradual reduction in the area of the public domain has not been accompanied with the diminution which might have been expected in the administrative work, at least in the number of contests. Not only is there no decrease in the number of contest cases received in this office on appeal from the decisions of the registers and receivers, but many of them are much harder fought than formerly. A mass of testimony is introduced on all phases of the questions involved, so that the average size of the records has doubled in the last few years. The records are replete with objections, extensive briefs are filed raising numerous and sometimes perplexing points of law, all of which require time for consideration.

During the past year 1,421 decisions were rendered by this office in this class of cases, and in this particular the work is practically

current.

Not all contests that are filed result in hearings, as numerous entries are canceled in accordance with the rules of practice on account of the default of the entryman to serve and file answer to the charges of the contest, and likewise a large number of contests are dismissed for failure of the contestant to prosecute the same. During the past year 6,165 contests were disposed of in the above manner and the records thereby cleared by the cancellation of the entry or the dismissal of the contest, and the work in this class of cases is now current.

REPAYMENTS.

The existing laws governing repayments, section 2362, United States Revised Statutes, act of June 16, 1880 (21 Stat., 287), and the act of March 26, 1908 (35 Stat., 48), provide for the return of moneys covered into the Treasury of the United States, received in connection with the disposal of the public lands, to be repaid to the entryman, his heirs or assigns, or his legal representatives, in the absence of fraud on their part, in all cases where lands have been erroneously sold;

where money has been paid by innocent parties on fraudulent and void soldiers' and sailors' additional homestead entries; where entries were canceled for conflict; where entries are erroneously allowed and can not be confirmed; where applications to make entry, filing, selection, etc., are rejected; and where any amount has been paid in excess of the legal requirement.

Under said laws there were stated during the last fiscal year 1,689 accounts, allowing repayment of $305,310.83, and during said period there were denied 799 claims for repayment. This number of claims allowed and the amount repaid includes 42 accounts, allowing repayment of $147,825.14, being moneys received in connection with then pending claims for coal lands in Alaska and repaid in pursuance of section 3, act of October 20, 1914 (38 Stat., 741).

Repayment claims allowed and denied by years.

One of the burdens of the office that grows no lighter with the years, but gradually heavier, is the prompt and efficient handling of the general correspondence incidental to the administration of the publicland laws.

With the introduction of every bill in Congress proposing a new scheme for acquiring title to public lands and the passage of every new act in the same field, either original in its scope or amendatory of former legislation, the numerous inquiries for detailed information are alone a serious item in our general correspondence.

These letters of inquiry are, for the most part, of such a nature that careful attention to the response must be given, not only that the correspondents shall receive full information, but also that no mistakes are made that will later interfere with the proper administration of the law.

Without including formal responses, the record of this kind of correspondence, not relating to particular cases but general in character, shows the following for the last four years:

DISPOSITION OF APPLICATIONS, FILINGS, AND SELECTIONS WHEN LANDS ARE OPENED TO ENTRY.

It was found advisable during the latter part of the last fiscal year, in connection with the restoration of lands excluded from certain national forests in Oregon, to formulate general regulations to govern the disposition of applications, filings, and selections when lands are opened to entry upon survey or restoration from withdrawal or reservation, where not otherwise specifically provided. The regulations approved by you May 22, 1914, circular No. 324, secure equality of opportunity to applicants and uniformity in such openings and simplify administration.

Such regulations provide that all applications, filings, and selections for lands to be opened thereunder may be executed in the manner required by law and presented to the proper local land office in person, by mail, or otherwise within the period of 20 days prior to the date of filing the township plat or of restoration to entry, and that such applications, together with those presented by persons present at the land office at the hour when the lands become subject to entry, shall be treated as simultaneously filed. Where there are conflicting simultaneous applications and one of the applicants alleges prior settlement, his application will be allowed and the others rejected. If two or more such conflicting applications are received containing allegations of prior settlement, a hearing will be ordered to determine the priority of right, and where there are such conflicting applications in which settlement is not alleged the right to enter the land will be determined by a drawing.

The previous practice had been varied and unsettled. In certain openings special regulations were issued either by this office or the local officers. In many instances, where desirable lands were involved, intending applicants have stood in line outside the proper land office for days prior to the date of opening, in order to present their applications at the earliest possible moment on that date. There is now no occasion for such action, which was attended by many hardships to the applicants and difficulties of administration on the part of the land officials. Before the present impartial method was adopted the right to enter land when conflicting simultaneous applications without allegation of settlement were received was usually awarded to the highest bidder, a practice which gave an advantage to the man with money over his competitors.

During the fiscal year the openings conducted under the above defined regulations have been satisfactory to the public and this office.

STATE DEVELOPMENT-ADMINISTRATIVE POLICY. The beneficent exercise by Congress of the duties, powers, and privileges incident to the Federal ownership of the public domain is in no instance more marked with the recognition of the great trust imposed for the national benefit than in the provisions that are made for the establishment and maintenance of our free institutions in new States on their admission to the Union.

In the preparation of a report on a bill introduced at the last session of Congress, proposing a cession to one of the States of all the public lands remaining therein, some very instructive and interesting figures were disclosed, illustrating the generosity with which Congress has dealt with the new States in this particular, both prior to and at the time of their admission.

Pursuing the inquiry along the line thus developed, grants to 15 States, taken as fairly illustrative of the Federal policy, have been tabulated, showing the amount granted to each State for all purposes:

The grants thus made are in each instance found in the enabling act, under authority of which the State was admitted to the Union; but prior thereto due provision had been made, while the future State was yet in Territorial form, for the support of common schools, by the reservation of sections 16 and 36 in each township, a reservation which ultimately became a part of the grant to the State.

In many instances similar care was exercised to provide a suitable foundation for the higher educational interests of the State by the reservation of 72 entire sections for the establishment of a State university.

The act of September 4, 1841 (5 Stat., 453), dealing generally with the admission of new States, provided for a grant of 500,000 acres of land for purposes of internal improvements to each State thereafter admitted to the Union. In lieu of this grant, however, Congress has, in some cases, made grants of quantity for specific purposes.

The intent of Congress to furnish the State with a fair equipment for the discharge of its obligations attendant upon statehood is apparent from the specific purposes of the several grants, not only in its generous provisions for the maintenance of the common schools and higher institutions of learning, but also for the erection of public buildings, establishment of State institutions, and for other purposes of internal improvement.

DONATIONS IN AID OF EDUCATION OR INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

Under the several acts of admission and amendatory legislation provision is made for the payment to the State of 5 per cent of the proceeds of the sales of public lands within said State which shall be sold by the United States subsequent to the admission of the State into the Union, after deducting the expenses of such sale, for the creation of a permanent fund in aid of education or, in some cases, internal improvements. Under this provision the several States below have received up to June 30, 1914, the following:

In addition to the foregoing, there is annually paid to each of these States, under the act of July 2, 1862, and the special amendatory act of March 4, 1907 (34 Stat., 1281), the sum of $50,000 for the complete endowment and maintenance of the agricultural college established in the State.

To further illustrate the general Federal policy in this direction, reference is made to the tabulated statement herein, page 70, "Land